The White Sox’ night at Rate Field unraveled quickly, and by the time it was over, the bigger picture had turned just as grim. A 9-6 loss to the Rockies on Saturday not only dropped Chicago on the scoreboard, it also officially shut the door on its AL Central hopes.
Davis Martin never settled in. After Jake McCarthy opened the game with a routine grounder to first, Munetaka Murakami handled the play and flipped to Martin, but the right-hander missed the throw.
That error helped spark a three-run first inning for Colorado, and Martin was pulled before the frame ended. Noah Schultz came on in relief, while Martin was charged with three runs, two earned, in two-thirds of an inning.
Elsewhere, Cleveland was finishing off the division race. The Guardians’ 11-5 win in Kansas City gave them a two-game edge with one game left, clinching the American League Central and pushing the White Sox into the AL Wild Card round, which begins Tuesday at either the Rangers or the Astros.
Chicago also had to work around a couple of lineup absences. Chase Meidroth sat for a second straight game because of left hamstring discomfort, though he later entered as a pinch-hitter and doubled to lead off the eighth. Colson Montgomery was also out of the starting lineup against left-hander Jose Quintana, as manager Will Venable pieced together what he believed was the best group to attack the former White Sox pitcher.
The Sox did create openings, but they never landed the knockout blow. Trailing 5-2 in the fifth with two outs, they brought the tying run to the plate in Randal Grichuk, only for him to pop out. In the sixth, Montgomery got that same chance as a pinch-hitter and struck out for the 225th time this season, extending his single-season Major League record.
Chicago trimmed the gap with a run in the seventh on a Grichuk groundout, then nearly flipped the game when Murakami drove a ball to right that Statcast projected at 384 feet. It looked like it had a chance to leave, but Cole Carrigg tracked it down a few feet short of the wall to end the inning.
The White Sox still had one more push in the eighth. After Meidroth’s double, Kyle Teel added a single to put runners at the corners against Brennan Bernardino. But Sam Antonacci struck out swinging, and Montgomery followed by grounding into an inning-ending double play on the next pitch.
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White Sox October Ceiling May Come Down To One Front Office Bet
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Luis Castillos struggles have only sharpened the scrutiny on the decisions made in the summer, because pitching depth tends to define how far a playoff team can go. If the White Sox go home early, the discussion around this season may not center on the fact that they got in, but on whether the front office missed its chance to better position the staff for October. [Read more 🡒]